THIS Saturday is FightingBobFest, in Baraboo, WI

[mojowork_n]

If you've never heard of it:

http://www.fightingbobfest.org/

Or:

http://www.youtube.com/FightingBobFest

I'm kicking myself all over again, because the Google results page shows that Milwaukee's own Jeremy Scahill -- of "Blackwater, the Rise of the World's Largest Private Army" fame, was at FightingBob last year. I missed that one.

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/86994/bold_face_progressives:_jeremy_scahill's_blackwater_book_big_hit_at_giant_book_expo_in_l.a./


I'm putting this up in the "Minnesota" & "Illinois" forums, too. It's not that far from the TC metro area, or N. Illinois.

Here's the speaker's list:

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin
Tammy Baldwin was elected to Congress in 1998, the first woman to serve in the House of Representatives from Wiscosin. She has been re-elected four times since. Her driving motivation in politics is to pass legislation that will guarantee health care for all in America.

Phil Donahue
Phil Donahue of the DONAHUE Show used the television talk show format he pioneered to examine human behavior, he focused national debates on political and social issues and provided a democratic forum for presidential candidates. Phil is most recently the Co-Director and Executive Producer of the new anti-war documentary "Body of War".

Arvonne Fraser
Arvonne, a Minnesota native, is senior fellow emerita of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and co-founder and director of the Institute’s Center on Women and Public Policy.

Edward Garvey
Ed Garvey is a co-founder of Fighting Bob Fest and the founder, editor and publisher of FightingBob.com.

Robert Glennon
Robert Glennon is the Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy in the Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, where he teaches constitutional law, American legal history, and water law. His best-known work is Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters (Island Press, 2002), the first book ever published to focus on the environmental problems caused by groundwater pumping.

Raging Grannies (Madison)
The Raging Grannies are social justice activists, all women old enough to be grandmothers, who dress up in clothes that mock stereotypes of older women, and sing songs at protests. They typically write the lyrics themselves, putting their political messages to the tunes of well known songs.

Stan Gruszynski
Stan Gruszynski directs the Rural Leadership and Community Development Program within the Global Environmental Management (GEM) Education Center at the Stevens Point College of Natural Resources.

Doris 'Granny D' Haddock
Doris "Granny D" Haddock was born Jan. 24, 1910, in Laconia, N.H. After the defeat of Sens. John McCain's and Russ Feingold's first attempt to remove unregulated "soft" money from campaigns in 1995, Granny became interested in campaign reform. At the again of 89, she began a 3,200-mile walk across the country to demonstrate her concern for the issue.

Jim Hightower
National Radio Commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of "Swim Against the Current: Even Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow," Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the powers that be on behalf of the powers that ought to be - comsumers, working familes, environmentalists, small businesses, and just plain folks.

Peter Leidy
Peter Leidy is a singer, songwriter, and award-winning commentator on life in Wisconsin. His humorous observations involve politics, Wisconsin culture, the Madison scene, and personalized songs for individuals and special events.

Mike McCabe
Mike McCabe is one of Wisconsin's leading whistle blowers. He shines light in dark places at the Capitol as executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks the money in state politics, fights government corruption and works for campaign finance reform.

Robert McChesney
Robert McChesney is founder and president of Free Press, the national non-partisan media reform group.

Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks associated with human genetic engineering. Beginning in the summer of 2006, he led the organization of the largest demonstrations against global warming in American history.

Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia McKinney was the African-American Congresswoman elected from Georgia, who served 12 years as a tireless advocate for human rights, voting rights and holding government accountable. Ms. McKinney is now running as the Green Party's Presidential Nominee.

Congresswoman Gwen Moore
Gwendolynne S. Moore was sworn in as represenative of Wisconsin's Fourth Congressional District in January, 2005 and was elected to a second term in 2006. As a Congresswoman, Moore has continued to champion legislation to foster economic prosperity and to promote progressive social issues.

Namakagon String Band
Come hear the popular folk group Namakagon String Band this year at Fighting Bob Fest. They will be performing on the main stage, but you can also join them in the Litchner Pavilion at the end of the day while enjoying great conversation and an ice cold beer.

Piper Road Spring Band
Come hear the unique acoustic/bluegrass style music of Piper Road Spring Band this year at Fighting Bob Fest. They will be performing on the main stage, but you can also join them over the lunch hour at the Litchner Pavilion while indulging in some local food and beer.

Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter, author of "Target Iran", "Waging Peace" and "Iraq Confidential", was one of UNSCOM’s most senior weapons inspectors in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, after having served for eight years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. As a Marine, he conducted arms inspections in the former Soviet Union, and provided analysis of Iraq’s missile capacity to General Schwarzkopf in the 1991 Gulf War. Nation Books is the publisher of Target Iran, Iraq Confidential, and Waging Peace. “The most important thing to know about Scott Ritter is that he was right.” - Seymour Hersh

Matt Rothschild
Matt Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine, the director of the Progressive Media Project, the host of "Progressive Radio," the Progressive Point of View commentator, the author of "You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression," and the editor of the forthcoming anthology "The Best of The Progressive: 1909-2009."

Alan Snitow
Alan Snitow is a documentary filmmaker whose recent film "Thirst" and recent book "Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water" focus on community battles against water privatization.

Nancy Unger
Nancy C. Unger is author of the prize winning biography Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer. She believes that understanding the stunning parallels between the original progressive era and our own provides both inspiration and effective reform tools.

[madrchsod]

1. really good line up and no money to get there

a really great two hour drive from my house..

[sybylla]

2. We'll be there, bringing friends too. Hoping I don't regret it.

We'll be walking out or turning our backs when they call Nader up to the stage.

You know, I've been to every Fighting Bob Fest, but they crossed a few too many lines last year beating the piss out of great Progressive Dems at the podium because they couldn't snap their fingers in DC and make all our Progressive dreams come true.

With the last minute addition of Nader there this year, this may well be my last Fighting Bob Fest.

C'est la guerre.

Latte sucking elitists unite! {terrorist fist bump}

[mojowork_n]

4. I've only been once, two years ago, in 2006.

I agree, there may have been one or two (or maybe even a couple of dozen) folks I might not have wanted to get stuck sitting next to, on a cross-country Greyhound bus trip, but come on...

I don't know what so turned you off last year, but when I went the Baraboo County fairgrounds it was Grand Central Station for all sorts of progressive activists.

People were standing behind folding tables handing out leaflets and screeds, and selling DVD's and buttons, for all kinds of stuff -- from advocating for the jailed, anti-terrorist Cuban 5, to the Free Mumia posse (they make you think), and the free-range buffalo meat and home-gardening folks...

I went late, alone, on an impulse, and missed most of the morning program. I did get to hear Tom Harkin (Sen-IA-D). (He was great.)
Amy Goodman was, as always (in her own unique way), both inspirational and terrifically clear-headed. Jim Hightower said something-or-other about whatever-it-was, and Greg Palast signed my copy of Armed Madhouse. He accepted an invitation, after the autograph line cattle-call, to hang out and have a beer. {Edit -- not from me, personally, there were a group of folks...}

OH-- and did I mention it's outdoors, the weather's supposed to be terrific, and you just might stumble across some speaker, some buried paragraph in a leaflet, or what have you -- that you'll NEVER, EVER find out about, if you don't go!

...As for Saint Ralph being there, oh well, if you're not interested in anything he has to say this year, or any of the issues he's faught for over the years, or him even being there -- please, feel free to ignore him!

(I tend to think of him as the Bizarro World Broken Clock -- he's been spectacularly wrong --twice -- but on balance, he's been more right than wrong, over the years. Not that I want to march in step, or anything...)

[sybylla]

5. Hey, I never said there wasn't a lot to love about FBF.

What I said was that last year they spent too much time bashing good, Progressive, Fighting-Bob-style Dems from the podium. If there's more of that this year (we already know where Nader stands on this), then what's the point of spending the day in the stands? Especially in an election year when I could be home knocking doors or making phone calls instead.

Fighting Bob Fest has always been an energizing event for me. I simply hope it will continue to be this year. Otherwise, I have better things to do the weekend before the primary and this will have been a waste of time.

[mojowork_n]

6. My fingers are crossed.

If I run into a tediously tendentious/negative/counter-productive speaker, I'll just vote with my legs, and go get some air. Wander the tables and booths.

Kudo's to you for the canvassing, phone work.

Edit/Update/AddCartoon:

[a kennedy]

3. I've been there twice, saw Mr. Peace, Dennis Kucinich one time...

have a wedding this year..... will miss it. :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Broca]

7. I will be there

I've set my alarm clock. Probably get there about 9:30 or so.

[mojowork_n]

8. I rolled in about quarter after 10

Phil Donohue was great. He surprised me, as did Gwen Moore and Scott Ritter. I missed Bob McChesney's speech but got a chance to introduce myself in the booth hall, and ask him a question I really needed a good answer for. I think I got it.

It was a pretty good day. (...Oh, wait, one of the speakers said, 'so much self-congratulatory baying at the moon,' unless it's translated into...

uh...

action?)

I liked Matt Rotschild's line about the two P.O.W.'s at the top of the Republican ticket.
(The Prisoner of War and the Piece of Work.)



"The ills of democracy can only be cured by more democracy," Robert M. Lafollette, Sr.